Monday, December 24, 2012

In the Mitch of time

The man who made the defeat of Barack Obama the Republicans' No. 1 goal in 2012 is now the man who can avert the fiscal cliff.

In the wake of John Boehner's abdication of responsibility for his runaway charges, the nation now turns its lonely eyes to Mitch McConnell, a man who appears to be fighting a permanent dyspepsia.

It's sort of like Louise asking Thelma if this is the right place to careen over the edge or if there is a better spot.

McConnell, the man who controls the Senate filibuster, is playing his usual coy self, suggesting he cannot dictate to his members whether or not to hold up any proposed temporary fix to the artificial crisis created when Republicans cut taxes too deeply and boosted spending to eliminate the Clinton surplus.

A few members of McConnell's caucus are ready to jump ship and support a temporary fix to the current mess created and abandoned by Boehner and the Tea Party. Listen to Georgia Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson on ABC's "This Week."

“The president’s statement is right. No one wants taxes to go up on the middle class. I
don’t want them to go up on anybody, but I’m not in the majority in the
United States Senate, and he’s the president of the United States.

“The truth of the matter is, if we do fall off the cliff after the
president is inaugurated, he’ll come back, propose just what he proposed
yesterday in leaving Washington, and we’ll end up adopting it. But why should we put the markets in such turmoil
and the people in such misunderstanding or lack of confidence? Why not
go ahead and act now?”

Isakson, along with retiring Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson are among the tiny handful of members of the reality wing of the GOP. But it may be too much to expect McConnell to provide any leadership on this issue, given the political reality being faced by the Senate Minority Leader.